South Africa has become the first country on the African continent to carryout clinical trials on Covid-19 vaccine. The drug is called the called The South African Ox1Cov-19 Vaccine VIDA-Trial, will be administered to 1,950 people aged between 18 and 65. All of 1,950 people taking the vaccine are HIV negative.
Wits University is collaborating with Oxford University on the trial, with funding from the SA Medical Research Council and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
The clinical trial will also involve 50 HIV positive people. All the people engaged for the trials will be under study for a year.
The vaccine trials will begin in Gauteng on Wednesday and will spread to Cape Town in the coming weeks.
Other countries are also doing similar trials with Brazil administering 5,000 volunteers and 14,000 Britons being targeted for the Oxford Jenner Institute developed vaccine.
An even larger study (of the same vaccine) is planned for the US where up to 30,000 will be enrolled.
“The objective of the trial is to investigate if the vaccine will protect against Covid-19, doesn’t cause unacceptable side effects, and if it induces satisfactory immune responses,” according to Wits University.
Researchers hope that human bodies will recognise ChAdOx1 nCoV-19, and develop a response to fight against SARS-CoV-2 virus from entering human cells and causing Covid-19.
The SA Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) and the Human Research Ethics Committee of the University of the Witwatersrand approved the study to be carried out in South Africa after they did a research on the medicine.
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The South African Ox1Cov-19 Vaccine VIDA-Trial is being led by Prof Shabir Madhi, professor of vaccinology at Wits University who also sits on the government Covid-19 taskforce board.
Prof Madhi said the vaccine trial will be concluded by mid August this year and monitoring will continue for a full year.
Professor Madhi went on to say, “SA is nearing the mark that countries like the UK and Italy reached at their peak — when around 35,000 new cases were appearing each week”.
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South Africa and Bill Gates Covid-19 trials
South Africans raised concern over the involvement of Tech Billionaire Bill Gates in carrying out Covid-19 clinical trials in South Africa. The call to avoid a situation where the clinical trials would not happen in Africa have fallen on deaf ears as the vaccine will be administered tomorrow.